Osman Rifat Ibrahim, grandson of last Ottoman Sultan, passes away

Sultanzade Prince Osman Rifat Ibrahim, the third-generation grandson of Sultan Vahideddin Han, the 36th and final Ottoman Sultan, has passed away in Madrid, Spain. Diagnosed with cancer, he suffered a heart attack while traveling on a bus on Saturday, February 1, and died in the afternoon.

According to Dr. Ibrahim Pazan, a history lecturer at Istanbul Topkapi University and a dynasty historian, the body of the 73-year-old prince will be transported to Switzerland after the necessary procedures.

He will be laid to rest next to his father, Prince Amr Ibrahim, in a cemetery in the Pully suburb of Lausanne.

What is Prince Osman Rifat Ibrahim?

Sultanzade Osman Rifat Ibrahim, also a prince of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, was the son of Necla Hibetullah Sultan, the third daughter of Sultan Vahideddin Han’s daughter, Rukiye Sabiha Sultan. Necla Hibetullah Sultan’s father was Prince Omer Faruk, the son of the last Caliph Abdulmecid Efendi and grandson of Sultan Abdulaziz.

Meanwhile, Osman Rifat Ibrahim’s father, Prince Amr Ibrahim, was a member of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and a fifth-generation descendant of Muhammad Ali of Egypt.

Born in Cairo during exile in 1951, Osman Rifat Ibrahim never married and spent his life in Madrid. He also served as the president of the Royal Institute Mohammed Ali, an organization he founded in 1991 to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the dynasty.